Icynene as a co. | Ask Mason Knowles - SPF Consultant | Spray Foam Technical Questions and Answers | SprayFoam Magazine Q&A Forums

Q&A Forums

Author	Comments
bob brown Posted: May 19, 2009 05:58 PM	Icynene as a co. I am a new SPF company - and currently started with Icynene after what I view as doing a great amount of research. So, my question is - "why so many negative comments?" - they seem to be a great co. to work with and the product works, our second job out of the gate was a 86,000 sq. ft. hotel and it went well.
JohnPeters Posted: May 19, 2009 06:19 PM	You moved posts on me. Here it is again. Allow me to reiterate... Icynene has done wonders for this industry and I am thankful. Notice how I created the last string with the word "mighty" in it. What could be construed as "negative comments" about Icynene (which is actually frustration) is related to their business model and it has to do with marketing. However, the same reason I praise them is the same reason they annoy me...marketing, marketing, marketing. Ruthless bashing of closed cell and organic based products is what has created a disconnect between icynene and the rest of the SPF industry. If you ever wondered why it seems like there is Icynene and every one else is because Icynene has done this to themselves - Canadian slam marketing. Now that they are offering organic based products, they have back peddled a bit...Development of LD-R50 was an obvious progression step for them. However, how can you go around bashing organic foam and then come up with your own formula a few years later...I think the leashes may be too loose on their sales reps. Far too mouthy and aggressive. Lesson Learned: Don't bash competitive product lines...you might end up offering it some day. I am still waiting for the day that icynene comes out with a closed cell formula. (And not to get into the whole OC vs. CC debate but lets be real people, both product segments have their pros and cons. Just because the icynene school taught you that CC is bad doesn't make it scripture. CC and OC both have their place in modern energy efficient construction - nuff said). There are so many players in foam production right now - it really is amazing. There is no way of the 10-20 manufacturers/blenders that are out there are going to be around 5 years from now. Impossible - not enough market share. Look at what happened to fiberglass - eventually there will be 3 or 4 big dogs making foam. Time will tell. I don't know if icynene's pockets are deep enough to fend off the BASF's, DOW's and Bayer's out reaching arms. There is only a hand full of company's that manufacturer Iso and icynene and Demilec ain't one of them. $0.02 jp
bob brown Posted: May 19, 2009 06:23 PM	Well - the class was interesting, and they actually had good things to say about CC (by the way they are developing CC right now) so you'll probably be seeing that soon from them. Thanks for the input - I still believe I went the right direction - as many of the Demelic dealers in my area are now gone just in the last year.

Author

Comments

bob brown

Posted: May 19, 2009 05:58 PM

Icynene as a co.

I am a new SPF company - and currently started with Icynene after what I view as doing a great amount of research. So, my question is - "why so many negative comments?" - they seem to be a great co. to work with and the product works, our second job out of the gate was a 86,000 sq. ft. hotel and it went well.

JohnPeters

Posted: May 19, 2009 06:19 PM

You moved posts on me. Here it is again.

Allow me to reiterate...

Icynene has done wonders for this industry and I am thankful. Notice how I created the last string with the word "mighty" in it.

What could be construed as "negative comments" about Icynene (which is actually frustration) is related to their business model and it has to do with marketing. However, the same reason I praise them is the same reason they annoy me...marketing, marketing, marketing.

Ruthless bashing of closed cell and organic based products is what has created a disconnect between icynene and the rest of the SPF industry. If you ever wondered why it seems like there is Icynene and every one else is because Icynene has done this to themselves - Canadian slam marketing. Now that they are offering organic based products, they have back peddled a bit...Development of LD-R50 was an obvious progression step for them. However, how can you go around bashing organic foam and then come up with your own formula a few years later...I think the leashes may be too loose on their sales reps. Far too mouthy and aggressive.

Lesson Learned: Don't bash competitive product lines...you might end up offering it some day. I am still waiting for the day that icynene comes out with a closed cell formula. (And not to get into the whole OC vs. CC debate but lets be real people, both product segments have their pros and cons. Just because the icynene school taught you that CC is bad doesn't make it scripture. CC and OC both have their place in modern energy efficient construction - nuff said).

There are so many players in foam production right now - it really is amazing. There is no way of the 10-20 manufacturers/blenders that are out there are going to be around 5 years from now. Impossible - not enough market share. Look at what happened to fiberglass - eventually there will be 3 or 4 big dogs making foam. Time will tell. I don't know if icynene's pockets are deep enough to fend off the BASF's, DOW's and Bayer's out reaching arms. There is only a hand full of company's that manufacturer Iso and icynene and Demilec ain't one of them.

$0.02 jp

bob brown

Posted: May 19, 2009 06:23 PM

Well - the class was interesting, and they actually had good things to say about CC (by the way they are developing CC right now) so you'll probably be seeing that soon from them. Thanks for the input - I still believe I went the right direction - as many of the Demelic dealers in my area are now gone just in the last year.

You need to login to reply to this topic. Please click here to login.